What are you currently playing?

[Worgen]

Played Jak and Daxter for the first time, a half hour. It's bland. I can see why Naughty Dog wanted its next character to shoot lots of people.

The silence of the protagonist sucks. Give me Nate's lame lines over this mute letting his little companion do all the talking for him in awkward conversations with NPCs.

He talks and shoots in the next game.

 

[Drathnoxis]

He talks and shoots in the next game.

And yet, Jak and Daxter was the superior game.

 

[Worgen]

And yet, Jak and Daxter was the superior game.

I wouldn't know, I didn't really get into either game.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

forcing player to just memorize the correct timing for i-frame

And that's what I despise about this genre: Having to figure out the one, exact, precise way the devs intended the player to win the encounter. That's not an expression of player skill; that's an expression of mania.

Speaking of memorizing attacks, it took me an hour and a half to bring down the Ancient Hero of Zamor. I just ended up landing jumping heavy strikes on him whenever I could.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Its always been about the "tough but fair" aspect of difficulty. But I feel like now the franchise has just gone into the "tough for advertisement" side of things. Enemy have ridiculous tracking, forcing player to just memorize the correct timing for i-frame and attack pattern makes no sense other than just being made to have confusing timing for parry/i-frame.

I got about half way trough elden ring (may very go back at one point) I like the exploration and the interesting lore. But the combat system just doesn't do much for me anymore. I don't have a particularly hard time of it, I didn't stop playing at a tough boss or anything, but I feel like I have to rely more and more on the aspect that I care the less for.

Also, really was hoping at some point they would make it easier (ie less grindy) to switch weapon so you can just play around with different style as you go, but they never did and so once you get invested in a weapon, its really hard to justify switching to something else, and that makes the gameplay more repetitive and means getting new loot as little value for me.

ER makes it much easier than past games to try out different weapons/builds, but the caveat is it’s only after getting the larval tears, bell bearings for stone upgrades and the end game wave of gold sword to quickly farm runes from the hapless albinaurics at Palace Approach Ledge. So it’s basically for diehards who want to replay an already long game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I made it to Malenia. All these years people banging on about how hard she is yet I only learned today from personal experience what exactly makes her so hard: she heals for every hit she lands on you, even if you block it. It's a tug of war from hell. I can reliably get her HP half down but it kinda doesn't matter when she can just pull that one attack out of her ass and heal everything back, if it doesn't kill me first (it always kills me first- so much for 60 VIG).

The thing is I tried Mimic Tear +10 on Mohg out of curiosity, not even that hard a fight, and it shredded the dude. And I kinda suspect that might also cheese Malenia, but don't want to try without first getting the hang of her fight. Or until I get sick of trying. Whichever.

 

[bluegate]

Well I made it to Malenia. All these years people banging on about how hard she is yet I only learned today from personal experience what exactly makes her so hard: she heals for every hit she lands on you, even if you block it. It's a tug of war from hell. I can reliably get her HP half down but it kinda doesn't matter when she can just pull that one attack out of her ass and heal everything back, if it doesn't kill me first (it always kills me first- so much for 60 VIG).

The thing is I tried Mimic Tear +10 on Mohg out of curiosity, not even that hard a fight, and it shredded the dude. And I kinda suspect that might also cheese Malenia, but don't want to try without first getting the hang of her fight. Or until I get sick of trying. Whichever.

She has a severe lack of poise and can he staggered a lot, aggression was rather rewarding during her first phase when I last fought her.

Mind you, after two or so hours I called it quits and summoned people to help out. I didn't really care about beating her "by myself" anymore, I just wanted to get rid of her.

 

[Worgen]

She has a severe lack of poise and can he staggered a lot, aggression was rather rewarding during her first phase when I last fought her.

Mind you, after two or so hours I called it quits and summoned people to help out. I didn't really care about beating her "by myself" anymore, I just wanted to get rid of her.

Yeah, she was one of the only bosses I did that with also. The other was the 4 godskin guys cause I just didn't want to deal with them.

 

[gorfias]

Mass Effect Legendary: upgrades to all 3 ME games.
Around 2007, I was playing ME1 on Xbox 360 and it was going great. Then I landed on my 1st planet and got nearly insta-killed by a giant centipede. I gave up and moved to other games. I bought ME3 for PC on EA and several years later, before really even getting into it, EA told me I don't own it. Ton of other bugs so I got Legendary for $15 from EA. So far, bugs gone. Now with cheats, I found myself in front of the same dang giant bug but invincibility really helps. I won this time, but I'm thinking maybe I was never meant to encounter this planet till I leveled up a ton. All sorts of things keep telling me I don't have enough electronic skill to open stuff. My main character has no such skill but someone on my squad does. As long as she is, does she need to be high enough to work? Would I have some way to make her unlock stuff, or will it just happen if she is on the squad?

 

[thebobmaster]

Mass Effect Legendary: upgrades to all 3 ME games.
Around 2007, I was playing ME1 on Xbox 360 and it was going great. Then I landed on my 1st planet and got nearly insta-killed by a giant centipede. I gave up and moved to other games. I bought ME3 for PC on EA and several years later, before really even getting into it, EA told me I don't own it. Ton of other bugs so I got Legendary for $15 from EA. So far, bugs gone. Now with cheats, I found myself in front of the same dang giant bug but invincibility really helps. I won this time, but I'm thinking maybe I was never meant to encounter this planet till I leveled up a ton. All sorts of things keep telling me I don't have enough electronic skill to open stuff. My main character has no such skill but someone on my squad does. As long as she is, does she need to be high enough to work? Would I have some way to make her unlock stuff, or will it just happen if she is on the squad?

You have to rank Tali (I believe that's who has the electronics skill) up to a certain rank depending on the difficulty of what you are trying to unlock (IIRC, it's rank 5 for medium difficulty, 9 for hard), but as long as she has that ranking in the appropriate skill, as long as she is in the party you can use her skill to unlock it.

 

[gorfias]

You have to rank Tali (I believe that's who has the electronics skill) up to a certain rank depending on the difficulty of what you are trying to unlock (IIRC, it's rank 5 for medium difficulty, 9 for hard), but as long as she has that ranking in the appropriate skill, as long as she is in the party you can use her skill to unlock it.

Yep, Tali who is who I am using, thanks! Tells me now and 19 years ago, I somehow picked the wrong thing to take as my 1st major mission. They gave me the choice to go after Saran who might be in two clusters, or after a doctor that knows something. I went after the doctor. Lot to figure out as I go along. Thank goodness for youtube.

 

[thebobmaster]

Yep, Tali who is who I am using, thanks! Tells me now and 19 years ago, I somehow picked the wrong thing to take as my 1st major mission. They gave me the choice to go after Saran who might be in two clusters, or after a doctor that knows something. I went after the doctor. Lot to figure out as I go along. Thank goodness for youtube.

I usually do Liara's mission first as well. The tricky thing is finding the right planet, as it gives you the cluster, but not the planet, so you have to make the right choice out of 4 possibilities.

 

[thebobmaster]

I have unlocked everything in Vampire Crawlers other than whatever I would get for beating the final boss. I think I'm done. That final boss is just...bullshit. And a run to get to him takes at least an hour, so it just feels too demoralizing to put in that effort and just not stand a chance.

I lied. I came, I saw, I kicked its ass once I realized a trick I was missing.

 

[thebobmaster]

For anyone playing Vampire Crawlers, some tips that I picked up along the way.

Wild cards are your friends. On top of what they actually do, they allow you to continue combos for a long time, which is something very important as the bosses get harder.

Once you unlock him, Korchi is your friend and should never leave your party. Revivals are a very nice option to have if you have one or two bad draws, and having a way to build up revivals is only really doable with him in your party.

Make sure to unlock having multiple crawlers in your party ASAP. Their synergy is very useful.

Once you unlock her, Christine is a very big help. Her ability to disarm enemies when she's active and a certain card color is played made the final boss go from seemingly impossible to "didn't even hit me once in the final phase".

Make sure you have at least one card with Freeze in some way. Later bosses have a timer that lets you know EXACTLY when they are going to attack, so as long as you have a card with Freeze, you can stop them at the appropriate time. Might have to break combo for it, but wouldn't you rather do that than take a 30+ hit to the face?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Well I made it to Malenia. All these years people banging on about how hard she is yet I only learned today from personal experience what exactly makes her so hard: she heals for every hit she lands on you, even if you block it. It's a tug of war from hell. I can reliably get her HP half down but it kinda doesn't matter when she can just pull that one attack out of her ass and heal everything back, if it doesn't kill me first (it always kills me first- so much for 60 VIG).

The thing is I tried Mimic Tear +10 on Mohg out of curiosity, not even that hard a fight, and it shredded the dude. And I kinda suspect that might also cheese Malenia, but don't want to try without first getting the hang of her fight. Or until I get sick of trying. Whichever.

The way I usually did it was just running away whenever she hovers and then rolling towards her after her first barrage if she closes the gap with it, then after rolling through the 2nd quick flutter, running away from her should be enough.

High poise damage attacks can really mess with her like bluegate said, but no shame in using a good spirit ash to distract or overwhelm her for good measure.

It’s best to finish her 2nd phase quickly because her butterfly phantoms are even trickier to dodge. I think those only happen if you’re too far away though, so better to stay close. Just keep distance when she does the scarlet rot bloom thing because it has a lingering aoe. It can also be interrupted when she’s suspended with some items like a frozen pot but timing is pretty tight.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The way I usually did it was just running away whenever she hovers and then rolling towards her after her first barrage if she closes the gap with it, then after rolling through the 2nd quick flutter, running away from her should be enough.

High poise damage attacks can really mess with her like bluegate said, but no shame in using a good spirit ash to distract or overwhelm her for good measure.

It’s best to finish her 2nd phase quickly because her butterfly phantoms are even trickier to dodge. I think those only happen if you’re too far away though, so better to stay close. Just keep distance when she does the scarlet rot bloom thing because it has a lingering aoe. It can also be interrupted when she’s suspended with some items like a frozen pot but timing is pretty tight.

I ended up summoning Mimic Tear. Honestly it felt a little bit like lowering the game's difficulty for the fight but whatever. She brought in her bullshit, I brought mine, fair is fair. I still had to get her patterns down and fight her a bunch of times before I beat her. I'll go back to playing the rest of the game normally until another boss tests my patience.

 

[bluegate]

I ended up summoning Mimic Tear. Honestly it felt a little bit like lowering the game's difficulty for the fight but whatever. She brought in her bullshit, I brought mine, fair is fair. I still had to get her patterns down and fight her a bunch of times before I beat her. I'll go back to playing the rest of the game normally until another boss tests my patience.

Congratulations

Here's a fun little video;

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Mass Effect Legendary: upgrades to all 3 ME games.
Around 2007, I was playing ME1 on Xbox 360 and it was going great. Then I landed on my 1st planet and got nearly insta-killed by a giant centipede. I gave up and moved to other games. I bought ME3 for PC on EA and several years later, before really even getting into it, EA told me I don't own it. Ton of other bugs so I got Legendary for $15 from EA. So far, bugs gone. Now with cheats, I found myself in front of the same dang giant bug but invincibility really helps. I won this time, but I'm thinking maybe I was never meant to encounter this planet till I leveled up a ton. All sorts of things keep telling me I don't have enough electronic skill to open stuff. My main character has no such skill but someone on my squad does. As long as she is, does she need to be high enough to work? Would I have some way to make her unlock stuff, or will it just happen if she is on the squad?

Every couple of weeks I say myself I should replay Mass Effect but then I never do because I was so happy with all the choices I made that I can't imagine doing anything different so what's the point.

There are some games that are actually so good I'm afraid to replay them because I worry it would taint my fond memories of them: Zelda Link to the Past, Bloodborne, Mass Effect series, Spiritfarer

 

[Worgen]

Spiritfarer

I have a feeling I will only replay Spiritfarer when my parents die.

 

[gorfias]

Every couple of weeks I say myself I should replay Mass Effect but then I never do because I was so happy with all the choices I made that I can't imagine doing anything different so what's the point.

There are some games that are actually so good I'm afraid to replay them because I worry it would taint my fond memories of them: Zelda Link to the Past, Bloodborne, Mass Effect series, Spiritfarer

I have a feeling I will only replay Spiritfarer when my parents die.

OK, gotta check Spiritfarer ASAP.

On your short list, Zelda: Link to the Past resonates. Buddy just got this retro device that plugs into your TV and it came with PS5 looking controllers, cheap but not bad at all for a ridiculous low price. Zelda: LTTP is available and I tried it and 36 years later, it plays great. Buddy asked of all the Zeldas to which the stick gave him access, what is the best? What should he play 1st? Hands down, LTTP.